POLITICS: Stop scolding, Dems!, shaping the new GOP and other commentary

Conservative: Stop Scolding, Dems!

“One lesson the left should learn from this election is that you don’t win elections by becoming an angry scold,” notes F.H. Buckley at The Wall Street Journal. “It isn’t patriotic to think that American history is a list of things that should never have happened and that half of Americans are garbage”; “today’s left is elitist and the right is populist.” “An older set of progressives” took pride in America “and how we differed from other countries.” So: “If the left wants to find a way back, it should start by taking ownership of everything in our past, the good and the admitted ill.” “Our absolution from history, and our sense of patriotism, can be found only within history, which has always offered its sources of redemption.”

From the right: Shaping the New GOP

“When Donald Trump took the oath of office in 2017, his party was divided”; eight years later, “he is the GOP’s undisputed leader,” observes Matthew Continetti at The Free Press. “The Republican Party has changed in a more populist and nationalist direction,” and its 2024 platform adopts “positions on trade, entitlements, and peace that had been long associated with the Democratic Party.” Meanwhile, the Democratic Party’s “tolerance of social disorder and its adoption of equity over merit, open borders, gender ideology, and censorship,” plus the Biden inflation and migrant crisis, brought in “a decisive shift toward the Trump Republicans across the country.” But beware the “danger” in taking Trump’s “decisive victory as an unqualified endorsement of his personality and program.”

Libertarian: Kamala Couldn’t Win a Fair Fight

“As pundits, pollsters and wonks” try to explain why “Kamala Harris did so poorly on Election Day,” Reason’s Christian Britschgi offers “a clear, obvious, overall reason”: “her experience as a prosecutor left her ill-prepared to compete in a fair fight.” In that career, “Harris enjoyed all the unfair advantages that America’s judicial system confers.” As a US Senator, “she shined in committee hearings by asking unfair, leading questions to captive testimony givers.” But “without her prosecutorial safety net, Harris floundered.” For weeks, she “attempted to correct for her flaws as a terrible retail politician by hiding” from media interviews. That didn’t “work in a tough election where voters are expecting you to affirmatively make the case for yourself.” In a fair fight against Trump with no prosecutorial advantage, “she proved totally outmatched and unprepared.”

Obituary: Bernie Marcus’ Unapologetic Zionism

“Bernie Marcus, the billionaire Home Depot founder and philanthropist,” died at 95 and “in the process of giving away the majority of his fortune,” mourns Commentary’s Seth Mandel. He “saw what Jewish students were up against and wanted them to feel a sense of pride and comfort with their Jewish faith” before getting to college. “Marcus had also given to organizations like Hillel International” and in programs to send young Jews to Israel. “His unapologetic Zionism was matched by his unapologetic advocacy of economic liberty and the free market.” When he “was accepted to Harvard Medical School but couldn’t afford it,” he “found other dreams — one of which was the concept that would become Home Depot.” The lesson: “We could do with less apologizing for success — and no apologizing for Zionism.”

Lawfare beat: Rout of the Flying Dutchmen

Trump’s victory turns the various cases against him into “legal versions of the Flying Dutchman — ships destined to sail endlessly but never make port,” explains Jonathan Turley at The Hill. “If there is a single captain of that hapless crew, it is Special Counsel Jack Smith,” who just “became a lame-duck prosecutor.” New York Judge Juan Merchan “could sentence Trump to jail” but “such an abusive sentencing, even a brief one, would likely trigger an expedited appeal and would likely be stayed.” And the Georgia case “is legally flawed and likely to fail on appeal.” Winning on Tuesday may not end all the “lawfare battles,” but “may effectively end the war.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board